Remote communication system, method for controlling remote communication system, and storage medium

ABSTRACT

A remote communication system includes a projector that projects one or more images transmitted from a remote site onto a screen. The screen has at least one front camera thereon. A CPU performs an extraction process to extract a person part from each of the images captured by the front camera and a scaling process to scale the image(s) captured by the front camera in accordance with a distance from the front camera to a person serving as a subject. The remote communication system further includes a projector that projects the image(s) subjected to the extraction process and the scaling process onto a screen set in the remote site.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present disclosure relates to a remote communication system used tocommunicate with a remote site, a method for controlling the remotecommunication system, and a storage medium.

2. Description of the Related Art

Systems used to communicate with a communication partner located at adifferent place (a remote site) have been developed. For example,Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-191613 describes a remote conferencesystem used to conduct a conference with a person located at a differentplace. The system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-191613includes a camera for capturing the image of a person, a projector forprojecting an image, and a screen that displays the image projected bythe projector.

According to the system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.2008-191613, the image of a person captured by a camera set in aconference room is projected onto a screen by a projector set at theother party's location (a remote site). In addition, the image of aperson captured by a camera set at the other party's location isprojected onto a screen by a projector in the conference room.Furthermore, according to the system described in Japanese PatentLaid-Open No. 2008-191613, by displaying a real-size image of a person,the realistic sensation of actually being in a conference room can beincreased.

When several people physically located in the same space (e.g., the sameroom) simply communicate with one another, the people are generallystanding and face one another at a distance of 1 to 2 m. If such a formof communication or a similar form of communication can be applied tocommunication with people in a remote site, the people can easilycommunicate with one another and understand one another.

As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-191613, the real-sizeimage of a person in a remote site can be displayed. However, if theperson who is standing communicates with another person, the person maymove during the communication. At that time, if the person moves in theright-left direction, the projected image does not cause a significanttrouble. However, if the person moves in the front-rear direction of thescreen, a problem of the projected image arises, since the size of thecaptured image of the person varies due to a change in the distancebetween the camera and the person. Frequent changes in the size of theperson projected onto a screen increase unpleasantness of a person and,thus, the realistic sensation is reduced.

To display the real-size image of a person, the size of the image can bemanually changed. However, it is troublesome to send an instruction tochange the display size each time the person moves in the front-reardirection and, thus, it is difficult to have a smooth communication.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure provides a scheme that allows smoothcommunication with a person at a remote site without givingunpleasantness caused by a significant change in the size of theprojected image of the person.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a remote communicationsystem includes a first projector configured to project one or moreimages transmitted from a remote site onto a first projection plane; atleast one image capturing unit disposed on the first projection plane,the at least one image capturing unit operating to capture an image; anextraction unit configured to extract a person part image from the imagecaptured by the at least one image capturing unit, a scaling unitconfigured to scale the image captured by the at least one imagecapturing unit in accordance with a distance from the at least one imagecapturing unit to a person serving as a subject, and a second projectorconfigured to project, onto a second projection plane disposed at or inthe remote site, the image, which is subject to the extraction by theextraction unit and which is scaled by the scaling unit.

According to other aspects of the present disclosure, one or moreadditional remote communication systems, one or more remotecommunication apparatuses, one or more control methods and one or morestorage mediums are discussed herein. Further features of the presentdisclosure will become apparent from the following description ofexemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A to 1C are cross-sectional views of a remote communicationsystem according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the remote communication system accordingto the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of the remote communicationsystem according to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates the image capturing area of a front camera accordingto the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 5A to 5F illustrate a scaling process and a trimming processaccording to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a process to capture the image of a personaccording to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the process to capture the image of a personaccording to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a process to project an image according to theexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure is described in detailbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings. The followingdescription of the exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative in natureand is in no way intended to limit the disclosure and/or inventiondefined by the claims. All of the features and the combinations thereofdescribed in the embodiment are not necessarily essential to thedisclosure.

FIGS. 1A to 1C are cross-sectional views of a remote communicationsystem according to the present disclosure. By using the remotecommunication system, communication can be performed between an office 1disposed in a headquarter and an office 2 disposed on a blanch A orbetween the office 1 and an office 3 disposed in a branch B. Note thatwhile the description is given with reference to three offices as anexample, communication may be performed only between two offices, thatis, the office 1 and the office 2. In addition, all the offices may bereferred to as a “remote communication system”. Alternatively, only theconfiguration included in a single office may be referred to as a“remote communication system”.

In addition, the offices described herein may be separated so that thetime required to move from one of the offices to the other is severalhours, or the offices may be different conference rooms in the samebuilding. That is, the term “remote” refers to physically differentspaces and does not define the physical distance and the time lengthrequired for movement from one place to another place.

The office 1 illustrated in FIG. 1A includes a projector 101, abackground camera 102, a screen 103, front cameras 104, and a backcamera 105. The projector 101 is a projection device that projects theimage captured in one of the other offices onto the screen 103. Thescreen 103 serves as a projection plane that displays the imageprojected by the projector 101. Note that the screen 103 may be a screentemporarily placed when communication is performed with one of the otheroffices. Alternatively, a wall of the office may serve as the screen103. In addition, while the present exemplary embodiment is describedwith reference to an example in which the projector and the screen areused to display an image, the image may be displayed using a largeliquid crystal display.

The front cameras 104 are front image capturing devices disposed infront of a person 106 to capture the images of the person 106. In thisexample, to capture the image of the whole body of the person 106, threefront cameras 140, that is, front cameras 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c areemployed. However, at least one front camera can be employed. Theprocess related to capturing the image of the person 106 using the frontcameras 104 is described in more detail below.

The background camera 102 is a background image capturing device thatcaptures the background image of the person 106 (i.e., the image takenin the right direction in FIG. 1A). In this example, the office 1 is nota room dedicated to remote communication, but is an ordinary office roomfor everyday business. The background image captured by the backgroundcamera 102 contains the images of desks, chairs, and cabinets ofemployees and the image of a person who is conducting another businesstransaction. By projecting such a background image together with theimage of the person captured by the front cameras 104, a simulatedenvironment as if people stood and chatted with one another in thecorner of the office room can be produced. Note that to prevent thebackground image (an object) from being hidden by the image of theperson 106, it is desirable that the background camera 102 be mounted onthe upper section of the room in the vertical direction (near theceiling).

The back camera 105 is a back image capturing device for capturing theimage of the person 106 or the image displayed on the screen 103 in thedirection from the right to the left in FIG. 1A. Since the person 106faces to the screen 103 (i.e., the left in FIG. 1A) during remotecommunication, the back camera 105 captures the image of the person 106from behind. Note that the distance between the back camera 105 and theperson 106 is longer than the distance between the front camera 104 andthe person 106. Accordingly, the back camera 105 can capture the imageof the entire body of the person 106.

The front camera 104 includes a range sensor for detecting the distancefrom the front camera 104 to the subject. The image captured by thefront camera 104 includes an RGB color image with 8 bits per channel and3 channels and a range image with 8 bits per channel and 1 channel. Incontrast, each of the background camera 102 and the back camera 105 doesnot include a range sensor. Accordingly, an image captured by each ofthe background camera 102 and the back camera 105 includes an RGB colorimage with 8 bits per channel and 3 channels, but does not include arange image. Note that the images captured by each of the front camera104, the background camera 102, and the back camera 105 are time-seriesstill images, which are sequentially projected in a remote site. In thismanner, the images are played back in the form of a moving image.

Like the office 1, in the office 2 in which a person 116 is located(FIG. 1B), equipment similar to that in the office 1 (i.e., a projector111, a background camera 112, a screen 113, a front camera 114, and aback camera 115) is provided. In addition, in the office 3 in which aperson 126 is located (FIG. 1C), equipment similar to that in the office1 or 2 (i.e., a projector 121, a background camera 122, a screen 123, afront camera 124, and a back camera 125) is provided. Note that each ofthe screens 103 and 113 measures 2.3 meters high by 4 meters wide. Incontrast, the screen 123 has a relatively smaller size and measures 1meter high by 2 meters wide. When communication using a real-sizeprojected image of the entire body is desirable, the offices 1 and 2each having a large screen need to be used. However, if the space islimited, a small screen can be used as in the office 3. At that time,the image of the entire body of a person located in the remote sitecannot be displayed on the screen 123. Thus, for example, the image ofonly the upper body of the person is projected on the screen 123.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the remote communication system viewed ina direction from the right to the left in FIG. 1A. In FIG. 2, the person106 located in the office 1 is communicating with the person 116 locatedin the office 2. Since as described above, the screen 103 ishorizontally long, two projectors 101 (i.e., projectors 101 a and 101 b)are provided. However, a single projector may project the image. Thebackground camera 102 is set in the upper middle of the screen 103. Thefront cameras 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c are embedded in the screen 103 soas to be arranged in a line in the middle section of the screen 103 inthe vertical direction.

A digitizer 201 is a detecting device that detects the operationperformed on the screen 103 by a user. The digitizer 201 includes atransmitter 201 a and a receiver 201 b. If an infrared light beamprojected by the transmitter 201 a is blocked by, for example, part ofthe body of the person 106 or a pointer held by the person 106, thedigitizer 201 outputs the coordinates of the position. Note that in thisexample, the transmitter 201 a and the receiver 201 b are disposed atthe left and right ends of the screen 103, respectively. However, thetransmitter 201 a and the receiver 201 b may be disposed at the upperand lower ends of the screen 103, respectively. In addition, a techniquefor detecting the operation performed by a user is not limited to atechnique using a digitizer. For example, the screen 103 may have atouch panel function, and a position in the screen 103 at which thescreen 103 is pressed may be detected.

The image of the person 116 captured by the front camera 114 set in theoffice 2 is projected onto the screen 103. In addition, in FIG. 2, adocument (e.g., a conference material) stored in a document managementserver 340 (described below) is displayed as the background image of theperson 116. It can be switched whether as the background of the person116, a document stored in the document management server 340 isprojected or the background image of the office 2 captured by thebackground camera 112 is projected in accordance with the operationperformed by the person 116 and detected by the digitizer 201.

FIG. 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of the remote communicationsystem. A central processing unit (CPU) 316 included in a controlapparatus 310 reads out a control program stored in a read only memory(ROM) 318 and controls the equipment provided in the office 1. A randomaccess memory (RAM) 317 is used as temporary memory areas, such as amain memory and a work area of the CPU 316. Note that in the office 1,the CPU 316 uses a single memory (the RAM 317) and performs processesindicated by a flowchart described below. However, another form ofprocessing can be employed. For example, a control apparatus 310 may beprovided for each of the cameras, projectors, and digitizer. Thus, theprocesses may be performed by a plurality of CPUs and RAMs (or hard diskdrives (HDDs) or solid state drives (SSDs)) that are in cooperation withone another. Alternatively, some of the processes described below may beperformed by a hardware circuit, such as an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC).

The offices are connected to one another using a network 300. Anynetwork selected from among a wired network, a wireless network, a widearea network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a public line, and adedicated line can be employed as the network 300 in accordance with theenvironment. To connect the office 1 to the network 300, a networkinterface (I/F) 311 is employed.

Each of the offices has a microphone and a speaker disposed therein (notillustrated in FIGS. 1A to 1C and FIG. 2). The speech emanated from aperson in the office is converted into an audio signal by a microphoneand is output from a speaker in a remote site. The office 1 has amicrophone 319 and a speaker 320 disposed therein. To control the inputof speech using the microphone 319 and the output of the speech usingthe speaker 320, an audio I/F 312 is employed.

To control projection of an image using the projector 101, a projectorI/F 313 is employed. To control detection of the operation performed bya user using the digitizer 201, a digitizer I/F 314 is employed. Tocontrol the image capturing operations performed by the front camera104, the back camera 105, and the background camera 102, a camera I/F315 is employed.

Note that each of the offices 2 and 3 has a configuration that is thesame as that of the office 1 (not illustrated). Examples of theabove-mentioned interfaces include a universal serial bus (USB), a highdefinition multimedia interface (HDMI (trade name)), a wired LAN, and awireless LAN, one of which is selected as needed.

When an image captured in each of the offices and speech input in anoffice are sent to the other offices, a relay server 350 relays theimage and speech. The document management server 340 stores documents tobe projected onto the screen by the projector in each of the offices(e.g., a conference material). As illustrated in FIG. 2, upon receivingan instruction to project a document together with the image of theperson, the CPU 316 acquires the document from the document managementserver 340 and causes the projector 101 to project the document. Notethat the instruction to project the document can be output from any oneof the offices that perform remote communication.

When the screen 103 is used as an operation unit of the remotecommunication system, an object management server 330 stores objects tobe projected onto the screen 103 by the projector 101. An example of theobject is an operation button used to select one of the offices to beconnected. If the remote communication system is started in the office1, the CPU 316 acquires, from the object management server 330,selection buttons each corresponding to one of the offices and causesthe projector 101 to project the selection buttons onto the screen 103.If the person 106 touches the screen 103, the digitizer 201 detects thecoordinates of the touched position, and the CPU 316 identifies one ofthe selection buttons corresponding to the detected coordinates.Thereafter, the CPU 316 starts remote communication with the officecorresponding to the identified selection button.

FIG. 4 illustrates the image capturing areas of the front cameras 104.The front cameras 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c are set at heights of a (1750mm), b (1050 mm), and c (350 mm) from the floor, respectively.

The angles of view of the front cameras 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c in thevertical direction are θa, θb, and θc, respectively. In this example,θa, θb, and θc are the same. A distance d from the front camera 104 tothe person 106 is calculated on the basis of the range image captured bythe front camera 104. In FIG. 4, the positions 106 a and 106 b of theperson 106 indicate that the person 106 is moving toward the screen 103in the front-rear direction. A distances d1 is the distance from theperson 106 standing at the position of the person 106 a to the frontcamera 104 (the screen 103), and a distances d2 is the distance from theperson 106 standing at the position 106 b to the front camera 104 (thescreen 103). Note that the position 106 a is the closest position to thescreen 103 at which the entire body of the person 106 can be captured bythe front camera 104. If the person 106 further moves closer to thescreen 103, the person 106 is outside the angle of view of the frontcamera 104 and, thus, part of the image of the body of the person 106disappears.

Scaling and trimming of the image captured by the front camera 104 isdescribed next with reference to FIGS. 5A to 5F. According to thepresent exemplary embodiment, the position 106 a at which the person 106is standing is considered as a reference position. Even when the person106 slightly moves back from the reference position, the image of theperson 106 is projected so as to be displayed with the same image sizeas when the person 106 is located at the position 106 a. Note that ifthe position 106 b is away from the screen 103 by 2 meters or more, aprocess described below with reference to FIG. 7 is performed. Thus, theimage of the person 106 is not projected.

If the person 106 stands at the position 106 b, the size of the personin the images captured by each of the front cameras 104 a, 104 b, and104 c is smaller than that when the person 106 stands at the position106 a. In contrast, if the person 106 stands at the position 106 a, theimages captured by the front cameras 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c do notoverlap one another. However, if the person 106 stands at the position106 b, overlapping portions of the images appear.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, by taking into accountthe above description, a scaling process and a trimming process areperformed. The scaling process is described first. FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5Cillustrate the images captured by the front cameras 104 a, 104 b, and104 c when the person 106 stands at the position 106 b, respectively. Ascaling process is performed on the images using a scaling factor basedon the distances d1 and d2. More specifically, the images illustrated inFIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C are scaled (enlarged) by a value obtained bydividing the distance d2 by the distance d1. The images obtained as theresult of the scaling process are illustrated in FIGS. 5D, 5E, and 5F.

The trimming process is described next. The central points of the imagesillustrated in FIGS. 5D, 5E, and 5F are considered as the referencepoints. An area of each of the images corresponding to the size of theimage before the scaling process (a rectangular area enclosed by adotted line in each of FIGS. 5D, 5E, and 5F) is maintained, and theother area is removed. In this manner, the overlapping areas among theimages can be removed. The resultant images are sequentially combinedand, thus, the image of the person can be obtained. At that time, thesize of the combined image is the same as the size of the image of theperson 106 captured when the person 106 is located at the position 106a, and the combined image of the person does not have any overlappingportion.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are flowcharts illustrating a process to capture theimages of the person 106 using the front cameras 104 and a process tocombine the images of the person captured by the front cameras 104. Eachof operations (steps) indicated by the flowcharts in FIGS. 6 and 7 isrealized by the CPU 316 that is disposed in the office 1 and thatexecutes a control program stored in the ROM 318.

In step S601, the value of a variable N is initialized to 1. In stepS602, among the front cameras 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c, the CPU 316instructs the front camera 104 corresponding to the variable N tocapture the image of the person 106. In step S603, the image of only theperson 106 is generated from the image captured by the front camera 104.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the process performed in step S603 indetail. In step S701, a range image included in the captured imageobtained in step S602 is binarized. According to the present exemplaryembodiment, the person 106 stands at a position in the range from theposition away from the screen 103 (the front camera 104) by 1 meter tothe position away from the screen 103 by 2 meters. Accordingly, aminimum value of the distance from the front camera 104 to the subjectis set to 1 meter, and the maximum value of the distance is set to 2meters. In this manner, a predetermined range is set. In addition, foreach of the pixels of the range image, the value of the pixel is changedto 255 if the value is within the predetermined range. The values of theother pixels are set to 0.

In step S702, an erosion process that replaces the value of the pixel ofinterest with 0 under the condition that at least one pixel in theneighborhood is 0 or a dilation process that replaces the value of thepixel of interest with 255 under the condition that at least one pixelin the neighborhood is 255 is performed. In this manner, isolated pointnoise can be removed. In step S703, a smoothing filter process (e.g., aGaussian filter process) is performed to smooth the outline of an areawhere pixels each having a value of 255 are continuously arranged.

In step S704, a mask process is performed. Thus, a pixel of the colorimage corresponding to a pixel of the range image having a value of 255is made non-transparent, and a pixel of the color image corresponding toa pixel of the range image having a value of 0 is made fully transparent(is transparentized). Through the process, the image of a person part isextracted from the image captured by the front camera 104. As usedherein, the term “person part” refers to not only the image of a personbut the image of the person and, for example, a pointer or a productsample held by the person.

In step S705, as illustrated in FIGS. 5A to 5F, the scaling process isperformed on the images of the person illustrated in FIGS. 5A, 5B, and5C to generate the images of the person illustrated in FIGS. 5D, 5E, and5F, respectively. In addition, in step S706, as illustrated in FIGS. 5Ato 5F, the trimming process is performed on the images of the personillustrated in FIGS. 5D, 5E, and 5F.

Referring back to FIG. 6, in step S604, it is determined whether thevalue of the variable N is less than the number of the front cameras 104(3 according to the present exemplary embodiment). If the value of thevariable N is less than the number of the front cameras 104, theprocessing proceeds to step S705, where a value of 1 is added to thevariable N. Thereafter, the processing returns to step S601. However, ifthe value of the variable N is not less than the number of the frontcameras 104 (the value of the variable N is equal to the number of thefront cameras 104), the processing proceeds to step S606.

In step S606, the images of the person subjected to the processperformed in step S603 are combined. In addition, since after thecombining process, a blank (a space above the head, a space on the leftof the right hand, a space on the right of the left hand, and a spaceunder the feet) is left in the combined image, the trimming process isperformed on a rectangular area including the pixels each having a valueof 255.

In step S607, the image obtained through the process performed in stepS606 is transmitted to the office 2 that is connected to the office 1.In step S608, it is determined whether an instruction to complete theremote communication is received. If an instruction to complete theremote communication is received, the processing is completed. However,if an instruction to complete the remote communication is not received,the processing returns to step S601. Thereafter, the processes in stepS601 and the subsequent steps are performed again.

Note that in this example, the processes in steps S603 and S606 areperformed on the image capturing side (the office in which a personrepresenting the subject is located). However, the processes may beperformed in the office on the projection side (the office in which thecaptured image is projected). In addition, the extraction process of theperson part described in steps S701 to S704 may be performed after thecombining process described in step S606. Furthermore, althoughdescription is not given in this example, the image captured by thebackground camera 102 and the image captured by the back camera 105 aretransmitted to the office 2 that is connected to the office 1,synchronously or asynchronously with the transmission of the imageperformed in step S607.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a process to project the image transmitted froman office connected to the office. Each of operations (steps)illustrated in FIG. 8 is realized by the CPU 316 that is disposed in theoffice 1 and that executes a control program stored in the ROM 318. Notethat in this example, the processes described with reference to FIGS. 6and 7 are performed in the office 2 by, for example, the CPU provided inthe office 2 in the same manner, and the resultant images transmittedfrom the office 2 are projected in the office 1.

In step S801, the front image of a person captured by the front camera114 is received. In step S802, the back image of the person captured bythe back camera 115 is received. In step S803, the background imagecaptured by the background camera 112 is received.

In step S804, it is determined whether an instruction to display thefront image of the person is received or an instruction to display theback image of the person is received. The instructions are received inaccordance with the operation performed by the person 106 and detectedby the digitizer 201. If it is determined that an instruction to displaythe front image of the person is received, the processing proceeds tostep S805, where the front image of the person received in step S801 andthe background image received in step S803 are projected onto the screen103. However, if it is determined that an instruction to display theback image of the person is received, the processing proceeds to stepS806, where the back image of the person received in step S802 isprojected onto the screen 103.

In step S807, it is determined whether an instruction to complete theremote communication is received. If it is determined that aninstruction to complete the remote communication is received, theprocessing is completed. However, if it is determined that aninstruction to complete the remote communication is not received, theprocessing returns to step S801. Thereafter, the processes in step S801and the subsequent steps are performed again. Note that the processes inthe flowchart illustrated in FIG. 6 and the processes in the flowchartillustrated in FIG. 8 are continuously and concurrently performed duringremote communication.

As described above, the remote communication system according to thepresent exemplary embodiment includes the projector 101 that projects,onto the screen 103, the image transmitted from the office 2 located ina remote site. In addition, the screen 103 has a plurality of the frontcameras 104 disposed therein. The CPU 316 performs an extraction processthat extracts a person part from each of the images captured by thefront cameras 104 (refer to step S703) and a combining process thatcombines the plurality of images captured by the front cameras 104(refer to step S706). Furthermore, the remote communication systemincludes the projector 111 that projects, onto the screen 113 disposedin the office 2, the image subjected to the extraction process and thecombining process.

By having such a configuration, communication can be smoothly performedwith a remote site without providing unpleasantness caused by asignificant change in the size of the projected image of a person.

Other Exemplary Embodiment

In addition, the present disclosure can be realized by performing thefollowing processes. That is, the processes are providing a storagemedium including software program code that realizes the functions ofthe above-described exemplary embodiment to a system or an apparatus andreading out the program code stored in the storage medium using acomputer (a CPU or an MPU) in the system or the apparatus.

In such a case, the program code itself read from the storage mediumrealizes the functions of the above-described exemplary embodiment and,thus, the program code and the storage medium storing the program codeconstitutes at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Embodiment(s) of the present disclosure can also be realized by acomputer of a system or apparatus that reads out and executes computerexecutable instructions (e.g., one or more programs) recorded on astorage medium (which may also be referred to more fully as a‘non-transitory computer-readable storage medium’) to perform thefunctions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s) and/orthat includes one or more circuits (e.g., application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC)) for performing the functions of one or moreof the above-described embodiment(s), and by a method performed by thecomputer of the system or apparatus by, for example, reading out andexecuting the computer executable instructions from the storage mediumto perform the functions of one or more of the above-describedembodiment(s) and/or controlling the one or more circuits to perform thefunctions of one or more of the above-described embodiment(s). Thecomputer may comprise one or more processors (e.g., central processingunit (CPU), micro processing unit (MPU)) and may include a network ofseparate computers or separate processors to read out and execute thecomputer executable instructions. The computer executable instructionsmay be provided to the computer, for example, from a network or thestorage medium. The storage medium may include, for example, one or moreof a hard disk, a random-access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM),a storage of distributed computing systems, an optical disk (such as acompact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), or Blu-ray Disc (BD)™),a flash memory device, a memory card, and the like.

While the present disclosure has been described with reference toexemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is notlimited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of thefollowing claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as toencompass all such modifications and equivalent structures andfunctions.

This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No.2015-095888 filed May 8, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

What is claimed is:
 1. A remote communication system comprising: a firstprojector configured to project one or more images transmitted from aremote site onto a first projection plane; at least one image capturingunit disposed on the first projection plane, the at least one imagecapturing unit operating to capture an image; an extraction unitconfigured to extract a person part image from the image captured by theat least one image capturing unit; a scaling unit configured to scalethe image captured by the at least one image capturing unit inaccordance with a distance from the at least one image capturing unit toa person serving as a subject; and a second projector configured toproject, onto a second projection plane disposed in the remote site, theimage, which is subjected to the extraction by the extraction unit andwhich is scaled by the scaling unit.
 2. The remote communication systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the scaling unit scales the person partimage extracted by the extraction unit.
 3. The remote communicationsystem according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit makes a pixelhaving a distance from the at least one image capturing unit to thesubject transparent.
 4. The remote communication system according toclaim 1, wherein the at least one image capturing unit comprises aplurality of image capturing units, the image that undergoes theextraction and the scaling comprises a plurality of images each capturedby one of the plurality of image capturing units, and the plurality ofimage capturing units are disposed on the first projection plane, andwherein the remote communication system further comprises: a combiningunit configured to combine the plurality of images each captured by oneof the plurality of image capturing units.
 5. The remote communicationsystem according to claim 4, wherein the combining unit further operatesto at least one of: (i) delete overlapping parts among the plurality ofimages and combine the plurality of images into the image to beprojected by the second projector; and (ii) combine person parts imagesthat are extracted from each of the plurality of images.
 6. The remotecommunication system according to claim 1, further comprising: abackground image capturing unit configured to capture an image of abackground, wherein the second projector projects the image, which issubject to the extraction by the extraction unit and which is scaled bythe scaling unit, together with the image of the background captured bythe background image capturing unit.
 7. The remote communication systemaccording to claim 1, further comprising: a detecting unit configured todetect an operation performed on the first projection plane by a user;and a switching unit configured to switch among the one or more imagesprojected by the first projector in accordance with the operationperformed by the user and detected by the detecting unit.
 8. A remotecommunication system comprising: a projector configured to project oneor more images transmitted from a remote site onto a projection plane;at least one image capturing unit disposed on the projection plane, theat least one image capturing unit operating to capture an image; anextraction unit configured to extract a person part image from the imagecaptured by the at least one image capturing unit; a scaling unitconfigured to scale the image captured by the at least one imagecapturing unit in accordance with a distance from the at least one imagecapturing unit to a person serving as a subject; and a transmitterconfigured to transmit the image, which is subjected to the extractionby the extraction unit and which is scaled by the scaling unit, to theremote site.
 9. The remote communication system according to claim 8,wherein the at least one image capturing unit comprises a plurality ofimage capturing units, the image that undergoes the extraction and thescaling comprises a plurality of images each captured by one of theplurality of image capturing units, and the plurality of image capturingunits are disposed on the projection plane, wherein the person partsimage comprises a plurality of person parts images that are extractedfrom the plurality of images captured by the one of the plurality ofimage capturing units, wherein the scaling unit scales the extractedperson parts images, and wherein the remote communication system furthercomprises: a combining unit configured to combine the plurality ofimages each captured by one of the plurality of image capturing units.10. The remote communication system according to claim 9, wherein thecombining unit further operates to at least one of: (i) deleteoverlapping parts among the plurality of images and combine theplurality of images into the image to be transmitted by the transmitter;and (ii) combine the person parts images that are extracted from each ofthe plurality of images.
 11. A method for controlling a remotecommunication system, the remote communication system including aprojector configured to project one or more images transmitted from aremote site onto a projection plane and at least one image capturingunit disposed on the projection plane, the at least one image capturingunit operating to capture an image, the method comprising: extracting aperson part image from the image captured by the at least one imagecapturing unit; scaling the image captured by the at least one imagecapturing unit in accordance with a distance from the at least one imagecapturing unit to a person serving as a subject; and transmitting theimage, which is subjected to the extracting and scaling steps, to theremote site.
 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the at leastone image capturing unit comprises a plurality of image capturing units,the image that undergoes the extraction and the scaling comprises aplurality of images each captured by one of the plurality of imagecapturing units, and the plurality of image capturing units are disposedon the projection plane, wherein the person parts image comprises aplurality of person parts images that are extracted from the pluralityof images captured by the one of the plurality of image capturing units,wherein the scaling step further includes scaling the extracted personparts images, and wherein the remote communication system furthercomprises: a combining unit configured to combine the plurality ofimages each captured by one of the plurality of image capturing units.13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the combining unit furtheroperates to at least one of: (i) delete overlapping parts among theplurality of images and combine the plurality of images into thetransmitted image; and (ii) combine the person parts images that areextracted from each of the plurality of images.
 14. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing a program that causes acomputer to perform a method for controlling a remote communicationsystem including a projector configured to project one or more imagestransmitted from a remote site onto a projection plane and at least oneimage capturing unit disposed on the projection plane, the at least oneimage capturing unit operating to capture an image, the methodcomprising: extracting a person part image from the image captured bythe at least one image capturing unit; scaling the image captured by theat least one image capturing unit in accordance with a distance from theat least one image capturing unit to a person serving as a subject; andtransmitting the image, which is subjected to the extracting and scalingsteps, to the remote site.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium according to claim 14, wherein the at least one imagecapturing unit comprises a plurality of image capturing units, the imagethat undergoes the extracting and the scaling steps comprises aplurality of images each captured by one of the plurality of imagecapturing units, and the plurality of image capturing units are disposedon the projection plane, wherein the person parts image comprises aplurality of person parts images that are extracted from the pluralityof images captured by the one of the plurality of image capturing units,wherein the scaling step further includes scaling the extracted personparts images, and wherein the remote communication system furthercomprises: a combining unit configured to combine the plurality ofimages each captured by one of the plurality of image capturing units.16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according toclaim 15, wherein the combining unit further operates to at least oneof: (i) delete overlapping parts among the plurality of images andcombine the plurality of images into the transmitted image; and (ii)combine the person parts images that are extracted from each of theplurality of images.